Cord fabric and method of making the same



5 W. ALDERFER com)" FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME July 9, 1940.

Filed Dec. 7, 1957 mvsmon STEEL INC; 1444/. DERF'ER ATTORNEY Patented July 9, 1,940

PATENT OFFICE CORD FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKIN .THESAME Sterling w. mam, Fairlawn, Ohio, assignor'to The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application December 7, 1937, Serial No. 178,511 6 Claims. (01. 1

This invention relatesto cord fabric such as commonly is used in the manufacture of pneumatic tire casings, and to methods of manufacturing the same, and more especially it relates to the art of producing weftless cord fabric.

'Weftless cord fabric, sometimes called creel" fabric, is superior to square woven fabric or weak-wefted cord fabric for use in the carcass of pneumatic tire casings, for the reason that there are no weft "strands to cut the warp strands or to force them into'non-parallel relationship. The absence of weft strands, 'eitherheavy cords or widely spaced, weak, pick strands, makes it necessary to assemble weftless cord fabric at a ll calender where a coating of rubber is applied to one side of a c'ontinuous'length of the fabric as a means for holding strands in proper relation to each other. The initial cost of creels and other equipment necessary for producing weftiess cord fabric in the manner described is so great as to be prohibitive to other than large manufacturers of cord tires engaged in'mass production, whereby the equipment may be continuously employed.

The chief objects of this invention are to produce an improved weftless cord fabric; to provide a weftless cord fabric that may conveniently be made up by cotton manufacturer, and thereafter handled and processed in the same manner as ordinary woven fabric; and to provide a method of manufacturing fabric of the character mentioned. Other objects will be manifest as the specification proceeds.

Of the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan view, on a large scale, of a fragmentary part of a strip of cord fabric embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is somewhat diagrammatic sectional View of apparatus for producing the cord fabric shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of a pneumatic tire casing with the improved cord fabric therein, in unvulcanized condition;

Figure 4 is a view of the structure shown in Figure 4 after it has been vulcanized; and

Figures 5, 6 and 7 are plan views similar to Figure 1 showing other embodiments of the invention.

Briefly stated, the improved cord fabric con- 5 templated by this invention consists of continuous warp strands arranged side by side and adhesively bonded to adjacent strands, at spaced regions longitudinally of the fabric. As shown in Figure 1, the warp strands are designated i0,

i0 and the bonds between strands are designated H, H. Said bonds ii are composed of a plastic or viscous material-that will strongly adhere to the cord strands, and will have sufiicient body to extend from strand to strand without breaking. Furthermore, the bond must be of a composition 5 that will coalesce or,cure into the rubber coating that is subsequently applied, to the fabric, so that in the vulcanized article said coating will be perfectly bonded to the cords. To this end the bonding material conveniently may be of rubber composition, preferablya natural or irtificial aqueous dispersion of rubber, such as rubber latex, although masticated rubber dissolved in a volatile solvent may be employed if desired. As shown in Figure 1, the bonds ll extend from one 15 lateral margin of the fabric strip to the other, the strip as a unit being designated S.

Apparatus for the manufacture of the fabric strip S is shown in Figure 2 wherein i4 designates a receptacle or tank, i5 is a quantity of viscous, material therein of the same composition as the bonds l I, i6 isa transfer roller that is partly submerged in the viscous material l5 and has an exposed portion above the level of said material, and i1 is a distributing roller that has its peripheral face provided with a circumferential series axially extending, parallel ribs i8, 18. The roller i1 is rotated at the same surface speed as the transfer roller IS, in the direction indicated by the arrows, the roller I! being so positioned that 30 the outer margins of the ribs i8 thereon will make peripheral contact with the transfer roller l6 so as to pick up viscous material therefrom. A guide roller i9 is mounted adjacent distributing roller ii for guiding a group of parallel cord 35 strands l0 onto the latter where they pick up the viscous material from the ribs i 8, which material constitutes the spaced bonds H, ii that unite the strands ID to produce the fabric strip 5. A plurality of heated rolls 20, 20 are provided 40 for drying the viscous deposit upon the strands .lil, said strands passing to the drying rolls after being in contact with the distributor roller I 1 throughout part of a revolution of the latter to the end that the viscous material may obtain tenacious adhesion to the strands and be entirely removed from the margins of the distributor ribs i8. The drying rolls 20 may be arranged in staggered'relation as shown, and the strip S may be trained thereabout so that first one face of the strip and then its other face makes contact with a heated roll. The drying rolls serve to dry the viscous deposits upon the fabric, the dry deposits being non-tacky so that the finished product may be rolled up without the use of liner between convolutions to prevent them from sticking together.

The finished fabric strip 8 as described may be made up in the cotton mill that produces the cotton cord strands ill. The fabric thereafter may be handled with the same facility and in the same manner as ordinary weak-weftedcord fabric or square-woven fabric. In the-rubber industry the fabric may be impregnated with rubber composition and then coated with unvulcanized rubber in a calender as is well known in the art. It is then bias-cut into smaller pieces of proper length'and width and built into the carcasses of pneumatic tire casings. A fragmentary section of such a tire casing, in unvulcanized condition, is shown" in Figure 3 wherein the bonds H are still identifiable. In Figure 4 'the same tire section is shown after vulcanization has been effected, the bonds I i not being inevidence for the reason that they have coalesced with the rubber coating upon the fabric. 4

- Tires made with the improved cord fabric'have a perfect bond between the rubber and the cord strands whereby the possibility of ply separation equipment necessary for the production of creel.

fabric. Drying of the viscous bonds H increases their tensile strength and renders them nonsticky.

' In Figure 1 the bonding elements H are shown as narrow zones of bonding material extending transversely of the strip S from one margin thereof to the other. at spaced intervals longitudinally of the strip. In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 5 the cord bonds consist of relatively short lengths 22, 22 of bonding material disposed transversely of the strip, each bond extending across several cords and being spaced from the adjacent bonds in longitudinal alignment therewith, the bonds of each transverse row being staggered with relation to the bonds of each adjacent row.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 6 the bonds, designated 24, are arranged similar to Figure 5, but are of different shape than in the latter figure, being elliptical in con-' tour, and of such width as to overlie at least three cord strands.

In the embodiment shown in Figure '1, the

bonds are in the form of circles 2s, as that are Other modification maybe resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention, or the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

' 1. weftless fabric consisting of warp strands restrained against separation from each other solely by bonds applied to spaced portions of one surface of the fabric, the bonds being of a material that will coalesce with lmvulcanized rubber in the presence of heat. 4

2. weftless fabric consisting of warp stran held together solely by spaced bonds of rubber composition on one surface of the warp strands.

'3. weftless fabric consisting of warp strands held together solely by rubber deposited from. latex in the form of spaced, transverse strips.

4. The method of making weftless fabric which comprises the warp strands thereof in parallelism, to form a strip, applying a rubber dispersion locally to the surfaceof the strip, at spaced apart but transversely overlapping regions thereof, and then drying the bonds to renderincrease their tensile comprises arranging a plurality of warp cords in parallelism in a given plane to form a layer one cord in thickness, applying a rubber-like viscous bonding material to spaced portions of said STERLING. W. AIDERFER.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

-Patent No. 2;.2o7,279. July 9, 191m.

STERLING w. ALDERFER.

It' is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification ofth e above numbered patent requiring cerre'ct'ion'as follows; Page 2, sec- 0nd columri, line 1471, claim 6, for the word "lever" iead --layer--; and that 4 the said Lettez s Patent should be read-with this corr'ecticn therein that.

- the s'amemay conform to the rec 6rd of the case in the Patefit Office.

Signed and sealed this Z'Tthday pf August, A. D. 1911.0.

Ram Van Arsdale, (S'eal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

